Lockdown and Town of Cats

Note: Please note that unlike my previous articles, this article dwells in areas which are subjective in nature and difficult to measure. It is an experience sharing and solution seeking article. In the days, when line between professional and personal life is diminishing; this article tries to find references in literary world to express my thoughts

"I was waiting at the station for my train. There were couple of daily trains which used to stop here at cat town. The morning train did not stop today. I am afraid the evening train won't stop as well...

I was correct, the evening train did not stop. I know I am irretrievably lost now. This is not a town of cats; it is a place where I am supposed to get lost. And never again, for all eternity, will the train stop at this station to take me back to the world I came from"

The above paragraph is inspired and copied from a short story named - Town of cats by Haruki Murakami in his novel iQ84. The purpose of quoting this story and writing a passage from it is - its surreal similarity with what I am feeling during this lockdown. I am not sure about others, but if they find the similarities in the situation, then this article might help them as well.

Purpose of this article is to appeal to the collective corpus of intellect on LinkedIn for ideas and stimulate a thought process of solutioning than focusing too much on problems...

The Story...

Let me quickly take you through the story in my own words. If you want to read the full story, you can check it at the end of this article.

We all are stuck in our cat towns during this lockdown

• Some of us have senior citizens to take care of,
• Some have patients at home,
• Some are patients
• Working parents with small kids, toddlers and loads of work to manage
• Some having stress of retaining a job,
• Some with emotional traumas or mix of all...

Whatever it is, we are like travellers stranded in our own cat towns. Outsiders can neither see what's happening in that cat town nor feel, empathize with the pain, emotional stress we all are facing. The feeling is of loneliness is dreadful.

This lockdown is causing a distress, depression or negative affect on our Emotional Quotient. It is due to the similarities in a way the antagonist thinks at the end of this story. Never again, for all eternity, the train is going to stop at this station to take us back to the world he came from.

More than the situation, it's the anguish of uncertainty or helplessness or unawareness about when will it end.

That is what is causing the mental pressure

So basically, this is something that our mind is trapped in. A vicious cycle of negative thoughts, depression and misery. We are prisoners of our own mind, in our own cat town... This is not just impacting personal life, but professional life as well.

Now the gazillion dollar questions to all the LinkedIn members are -

1. Are there any ways to get out of our own cat town? Professional as well as personal?
2. Are there ways in which we can help each other to get out of our cat towns?
3. Can technology or platforms like LinkedIn help us to get out?

Obviously, everyone is different and there can be multiple ways which can help us to get out of cat towns. So probable paths to leave the cat town can be:

• Talking to or spending time with loved one's can be one of them, but that is not the only way.
• Spending time on something that you love or passionate about. Doing something that makes you forget the time like e.g. I love to watch football. Those 90+ mins make me forget everything. So fortunately, English Premier League is resumed and I can spare some time watching football and leaving my cat town for behind for that brief period.
• Then it can be reading books or listening to audio books e.g. I try to forget the present miseries and harshness of the world by submerging myself into fantastical world of magic and imagination. E.g. I am reading Harry Potter again, or reading novels reading Artemis Fowl or books from Haruki Murakami
• Then there can be ways in which you can help others and forget about yourself. Like mentoring, giving trainings etc. Adding value to someone else's life.
• Then another way is playing with a children who innocently helps you forget the worries you are facing.
• Or doing social work, real social work of helping others and not the social media work of tweeting or putting up comments or getting into keyboard wars.

What do you think?

What are your ways to leave this cat town?

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The original story by Haruki Murakami:

A young man is travelling alone with no particular destination in mind. He rides the train and gets off at any stop that arouses his interest. He takes a room, sees the sights, and stays for as long as he likes. When he has had enough, he boards another train. He spends every vacation this way.

One day, he sees a lovely river from the train window. Gentle green hills line the meandering stream, and below them lies a pretty little town with an old stone bridge. The train stops at the town’s station, and the young man steps down with his bag. No one else gets off, and, as soon as he alights, the train departs.

No workers man the station, which must see very little activity. The young man crosses the bridge and walks into the town. All the shops are shuttered, the town hall deserted. No one occupies the desk at the town’s only hotel. The place seems totally uninhabited. Perhaps all the people are off napping somewhere. But it is only ten-thirty in the morning, far too early for that. Perhaps something has caused all the people to abandon the town. In any case, the next train will not come until the following morning, so he has no choice but to spend the night here. He wanders around the town to kill time.

In fact, this is a town of cats. When the sun starts to go down, many cats come trooping across the bridge—cats of all different kinds and colors. They are much larger than ordinary cats, but they are still cats. The young man is shocked by this sight. He rushes into the bell tower in the center of town and climbs to the top to hide. The cats go about their business, raising the shop shutters or seating themselves at their desks to start their day’s work. Soon, more cats come, crossing the bridge into town like the others. They enter the shops to buy things or go to the town hall to handle administrative matters or eat a meal at the hotel restaurant or drink beer at the tavern and sing lively cat songs. Because cats can see in the dark, they need almost no lights, but that particular night the glow of the full moon floods the town, enabling the young man to see every detail from his perch in the bell tower. When dawn approaches, the cats finish their work, close up the shops, and swarm back across the bridge.

By the time the sun comes up, the cats are gone, and the town is deserted again. The young man climbs down, picks one of the hotel beds for himself, and goes to sleep. When he gets hungry, he eats some bread and fish that have been left in the hotel kitchen. When darkness approaches, he hides in the bell tower again and observes the cats’ activities until dawn. Trains stop at the station before noon and in the late afternoon. No passengers alight, and no one boards, either. Still, the trains stop at the station for exactly one minute, then pull out again. He could take one of these trains and leave the creepy cat town behind. But he doesn’t. Being young, he has a lively curiosity and is ready for adventure. He wants to see more of this strange spectacle. If possible, he wants to find out when and how this place became a town of cats.

On his third night, a hubbub breaks out in the square below the bell tower. “Hey, do you smell something human?” one of the cats says. “Now that you mention it, I thought there was a funny smell the past few days,” another chimes in, twitching his nose. “Me, too,” yet another cat says. “That’s weird. There shouldn’t be any humans here,” someone adds. “No, of course not. There’s no way a human could get into this town of cats.” “But that smell is definitely here.”

The cats form groups and begin to search the town like bands of vigilantes. It takes them very little time to discover that the bell tower is the source of the smell. The young man hears their soft paws padding up the stairs. That’s it, they’ve got me! he thinks. His smell seems to have roused the cats to anger. Humans are not supposed to set foot in this town. The cats have big, sharp claws and white fangs. He has no idea what terrible fate awaits him if he is discovered, but he is sure that they will not let him leave the town alive.

Three cats climb to the top of the bell tower and sniff the air. “Strange,” one cat says, twitching his whiskers, “I smell a human, but there’s no one here.”

“It is strange,” a second cat says. “But there really isn’t anyone here. Let’s go and look somewhere else.”

The cats cock their heads, puzzled, then retreat down the stairs. The young man hears their footsteps fading into the dark of night. He breathes a sigh of relief, but he doesn’t understand what just happened. There was no way they could have missed him. But for some reason they didn’t see him. In any case, he decides that when morning comes he will go to the station and take the train out of this town. His luck can’t last forever.

The next morning, however, the train does not stop at the station. He watches it pass by without slowing down. The afternoon train does the same. He can see the engineer seated at the controls. But the train shows no sign of stopping. It is as though no one can see the young man waiting for a train—or even see the station itself. Once the afternoon train disappears down the track, the place grows quieter than ever. The sun begins to sink. It is time for the cats to come.

The young man knows that he is irretrievably lost. This is no town of cats, he finally realizes. It is the place where he is meant to be lost. It is another world, which has been prepared especially for him. And never again, for all eternity, will the train stop at this station to take him back to the world he came from.